Indigo mushrooms elicit eureka moment

When John Springstead went hiking through the forest behind his house outside Bryson City last week, he stumbled across a pale blue wad of paper peaking through the leaves. He stooped down to retrieve it as any good Samaritan would and ended up unearthing an interesting ecological find.

“As I cleaned the pine needles away, I realized they were mushrooms,” Springstead said. “I cleaned off all the debris and they rose up in beautiful shape.”

Several days later, more of the same mushrooms appeared about 20 feet away.

Springstead looked the mushrooms up in a quick reference guide book, but the only blue mushrooms listed in the book were Blewitts. It wasn’t a perfect match, so Sprinstead kept probing until he identified the mushrooms as Indigo Milk Caps. They are edible, though Sprinstead refrained from trying them.

The mushrooms were found near Kirklands Creek above the Holly Springs Cemetery road.

Reading Room

So, Scout (Jean Louise) comes back home to Maycomb — where “everyone is either kin or almost kin”— at age 26 and after being “away” and living in New York City for several years. Sixteen years have gone by since we last heard from her in the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Maycomb she comes home to isn’t the same Maycomb we know from the 1960 novel.

This Must Be the Place

For the better part of the last decade, my life during the summer was music festivals. From Maine to California, Michigan to Arkansas, I was there, in an endless crowd, cheering on the greatest musicians of our time. In those innumerable moments, I felt more alive, at home, and at peace, than anywhere else in the world.